Liia Palipea, Global Head of Food Marketing at Bolt, joins Apptivate’s Women in Mobile series to talk about working smarter, not harder. Liia brought the ride hailing app’s new food delivery feature to market in over 20 countries and 70 cities in Europe and Africa during the pandemic. This experience taught her how to evaluate what’s important and how to cope with stress when nothing can be cut from the to-do list. 

That’s not all. Liia encourages marketing managers to model work-life boundaries and to take long vacations. She also brings a refreshing perspective to women in the mobile tech industry who fear they will be penalized for what they’ve missed while on maternity leave.

Liia is based in Estonia. Prior to Bolt, she worked at an agency as a freelance strategic marketing consultant.

Questions Liia Answered in this Episode:

• How do you deal with the stress of such a demanding role?
• How did the pandemic transform what you do as the global lead for marketing Bolt’s food delivery services?
• What does your day-to-day look like? And, what have you learned about prioritization?
• How have you encouraged your employees to take care of their wellbeing?
• As a manager, how do you balance being available but respecting your offline boundaries?
• What’s the best advice you’ve received?
• How can we help women leave the ever-changing mobile tech industry on maternity leave without penalizing them for what they've missed while they were out?
• What advice would you give to women just starting out in their careers?

Timestamp:

• 1:29 Bolt & Liia’s role
• 3:52 When food delivery exploded
• 8:11 A culture of supporting mental health
• 10:19 Modeling work boundaries for employees
• 15:45 The value of a project
• 17:21 Fixable vs objectively tough moments
• 21:40 Taking a proper vacation
• 25:10 The state of maternity leave policy
• 29:44 You will bounce back from time away
• 32:00 Advice to women beginning their careers
• 39:28 Resource recommendations

Quotes:

(22:22-22:39) “I took a month off and it helped a lot. It helps give the perspective you need to better understand the value you’re bringing to the table. And, it helps my team, and hopefully other teams, to resolve certain bottlenecks—things they think are on my table but actually aren’t.”

(30:40-30:53) “At a high level nothing changes with mobile marketing, so in that sense people shouldn’t be scared to take some time off—be it traveling around the world, having kids, or doing whatever else they want to do, save penguins or turtles.” 

Mentioned in this Episode:

• Liia Palipea’s LinkedIn
• Bolt
• Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
• Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Christopher Voss and Tahl Raz_
• Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear